Great Regulars: As a youth, [John] Updike was an avid reader

of "popular fiction, especially humor and mysteries," according to his Academy of Achievement biography. His mother encouraged to him draw and write. He was president and covaledictorian of his class at Shillington High School and earned a tuition scholarship to Harvard University. There, he contributed stories and cartoons to the humor magazine The Harvard Lampoon, and spent summers working as a copy boy for the Reading Eagle. He met his first wife, Mary E. Pennington, at Harvard; they married before graduation in 1954.

from findingDulcinea: Happy Birthday: Happy Birthday, John Updike, Prolific Novelist, Critic and Poet

~~~~~~~~~~~